Expect to see a heck of a lot of offense on Wednesday night in the Northeast Conference Final, as NCAA basketball betting fans have a shot to take in the clash between the Long Island Blackbirds and the Robert Morris Colonials.

Long Island made it to the NCAA Tournament last year by running up and down the court, and this year’s team is going to be no exception. It is averaging 81.6 points per game, and it is a team that never fails to push the tempo against anyone in the land. Of course, it had some problems doing that last year in the tourney against the North Carolina Tar Heels, but in the end, it was a great learning experience for a team that could be dancing again this year. Julian Boyd and Jamal Olasewere are the two top scorers on this club. The Blackbirds’ two leading scorers are shooting 55.0 and 57.5 percent from the field respectively, and they are combining to average 34.4 points per game. Three others are good for at least 9.5 points per game, though they aren’t nearly as good of shooters. Turnovers are a problem for this squad, as we have seen with both Olasewere and Jason Brickman, who have combined to turn the rock over 228 times on the campaign.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Robert Morris nearly upset the Villanova Wildcats in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. This is a team that consistently is amongst the leaders in the NEC, and it should be able to put up a great fight on Wednesday night, especially after taking down Wagner on Sunday. The Colonials don’t shoot the ball all that well, and they are one of the few teams in this league that choose to slow it down just a bit. That’s not to say that Robert Morris can’t run, as it surely can and has proven it with several victories this season in which it scored in the high 70s. The key to stopping the Colonials is to keep up with the Joneses. Velton Jones had 25 points in the win over Wagner over the weekend, raising his scoring average up to 16.3 points per game. Lucky Jones is one of the double-double threats on this team, as he is averaging 8.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.

The Final Word: In the end, we are going to want to take the points in this one. LIU could be frustrated just a bit by the pace that Robert Morris chooses to play at, and in the end, as long as this one is relatively controlled by the Colonials, we think that they are going to be putting their dancing shoes on once again.

Adam Markowitz

is a staff writer living in the Orlando area. He has covered NFL, MLB, college football, CFL, AFL, NBA, college basketball, NASCAR, golf, tennis, and the NHL for a number of various outlets in his career, and he has been published by a number of different media outlets, including the Orlando Sentinel and the Wall Street Journal.